Watching television news shows, or reading the daily paper, middle-class Americans are sometimes left with the impression that the lower classes, the ghetto dwellers, have a monopoly on acts of violence, crimes of passion. After all, don't they hear about the numerous killings and acts of sexual violence that go on in the poorer sections, of town? But the fact is, crime and passion are not confined to any economic bracket.

Behind the high walls and shuttered windows of the very rich are people whose lives are shaped by the same emotions that govern us all. They, too, are subject to emotional entanglements and acts of violent passion. Perhaps their very isolation from the rest of the world encourages them.

The women in Cory Barnett's life are from the very cream of society. But beneath their cool exteriors, they are as wanton as any woman of the street. There's Sue Nelson and Luanne Dorton, best friends who get their kicks from each other. And Ella, the hot-blooded woman whose husband is too busy for her. And finally Nitra, whose demented desires and twisted passions entangle them all in murder.

DEPRAVITY'S BED is not an indictment of any particular segment of society. It is, however, a serious novel showing that anyone, rich or poor, can be caught—and killed—by a web of passion.